THE new centralised police air support service attended just two of 14 requests for help in Dyfed-Powys in its first month of operation, figures have revealed.

Plaid Cymru, which obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act, has issued an attack on Dyfed-Powys Police Commissioner Christopher Salmon following the news.

Last year Mr Salmon signed up the local police force to a centralised National Police Air Service (NPAS) – a move which saw the dedicated helicopter for Dyfed Powys scrapped on 1 January this year.

Mr Salmon had justified his support for a centralised service as a way to save money and to have more resources available to the force and said it was “too early” to say how the new service is performing.

The figures show that Dyfed-Powys Police requested air support 14 times between 1 January and 31 January, with the service failing to attend all but two.

There were another three incidents which NPAS could not attend for “other reasons”.

Three requests for air support were refused due to no assets being available, insufficient flying time to be able to attend, and due to NPAS already being committed in Gwent.

Despite the promise of a 24-hour service, five of the six requests made for air support between 8pm and 8am were not fulfilled.

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